• Undefeated runners-up of Group D behind AC Milan, AEK made it through to the knockout phase with just eight points – the joint-lowest tally of the 24 qualifiers – while Dynamo cruised through to the round of 32 with two games to spare, and scored 15 times in eventually winning Group B by five points.
Previous meetings:
• While AEK have never faced opposition from Ukraine, Dynamo have a positive record against Greek clubs, although the victories they achieved in their two knockout ties, against Olympiacos and PAOK, were both back in the mid-1970s.
• Since then they have played just two more matches, losing 2-1 at Panathinaikos before winning by the same margin at home in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League group stage.
Form guide:
• AEK are on an eight-match unbeaten run in Europe, their last five fixtures having ended in draws. They have kept five clean sheets during that eight-game sequence.
• The Athens club were the only unbeaten side in the group stage to qualify as runners-up. The other three – Atalanta, Salzburg and Zenit – all topped their sections.
• This is the first time in four attempts that AEK have progressed from the UEFA Europa League group stage to the knockout phase. They suffered an autumn exit three seasons running between 2009/10 and 2011/12. Although they reached the UEFA Cup round of 32 in 2006/07 and 2007/08, they progressed no further on either occasion.
• Dynamo were the first team to book their place in the round of 32, on matchday four, and scored 15 goals in the group stage – a figure bettered only by Group L qualifiers Zenit (17) and Real Sociedad (16). They won two of their three away fixtures – 3-2 at Partizan and 1-0 at Young Boys – but were defeated 3-2 at Skënderbeu.
• Winners of Greece's end-of-season UEFA Champions League play-offs in 2016/17, AEK lost both legs of their UEFA Champions League qualifier against CSKA Moskva before triumphing by the same 3-0 aggregate against Club Brugge in the UEFA Europa League play-offs.
• Runners-up in the Ukrainian Premier League last season, Dynamo lost to Young Boys on away goals in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League before reaching the UEFA Europa League group stage courtesy of a 3-1 aggregate play-off win over Marítimo.
• Dynamo are now competing in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 for the fifth time and bidding to make the round of 16 – and quarter-finals – for the third time. They were also semi-finalists in the last UEFA Cup, in 2008/09, losing to fellow Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk in the last four.
• Both AEK and Dynamo set out on their 2017/18 European journey in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.
UEFA Europa League squad changes:
AEK
In: Vasilios Barkas, Vasilios Lambropoulos, Masoud Shojaei
Out: Giannis Anestis, Patito Rodríguez, Arnór Ingvi Traustason, Andreas Vlachomitros
Dynamo
In: Dmytro Khlyobas, Artem Shabanov, Carlos Zambrano
Out: Maxym Koval, Artem Kravets, Domagoj Vida
Links and trivia:
• AEK's Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy spent ten years in two spells at Dynamo's arch-rivals Shakhtar, also playing for Dnipro in 2015/16 before moving to Greece.
• Chygrynskiy featured for Shakhtar in both legs of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup semi-final against Dynamo, which the Donetsk side won 3-2 en route to lifting the trophy. He also played the full 120 minutes of the final against Werder Bremen in Istanbul (2-1).
• Chygrynskiy is a former Ukrainian national team-mate of Dynamo pair Yevhen Khacheridi and Oleh Gusev.
• Uroš Ćosić (AEK) and Aleksandar Pantić (Dynamo) played together for Serbia at the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship in the Czech Republic.
• Dynamo's Júnior Moraes, who scored a hat-trick against Partizan on matchday six, is the competition's joint leading scorer, alongside Milan's André Silva and Zenit's Emiliano Rigoni, with six goals.
• Dynamo trailed Shakhtar by three points at the Ukrainian Premier League's winter break – but with a game in hand.
• Suspended for next match if booked: Hélder Lopes, Ognjen Vranješ, André Simões, Marko Livaja (AEK).
The coaches:
• Manolo Jiménez returned for a second spell as AEK coach in January 2017, having guided the club to 2010/11 Greek Cup glory during his first stint. The ex-Spain international left-back, who won 15 caps between 1988 and 1990, spent virtually his entire playing career with local club Sevilla, where he also started out as a coach.
• Hired as Dynamo coach in July 2017, Aleksandr Khatskevich won seven successive league titles with the club as a player from 1996–2004, having also won five straight championships with Dinamo Minsk in his native Belarus. He later worked with Dynamo's youth and reserve teams before taking charge of the Belarus national side from 2014 to 2016. He was capped 38 times by his country, scoring four international goals.
